Broadcasters should curb the amount of swearing on television, the head of ITV said yesterday, as he criticised the "indiscriminate" use of the f-word.

Television has a duty to reflect people's everyday use of language but the prevalence of swear words on television is alienating large swathes of the audience, said Michael Grade, the channel's executive chairman.

His call for a crackdown on bad language follows the row over obscene phones calls made by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to Fawlty Towers actor Jonathan Sacks on a BBC Radio 2 show.

The pair left a series of lewd messages on Mr Sacks's answer machine, including one in which Ross told the 78-year-old actor that Brand had "xxxxxx" his granddaughter.

Speaking at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch in London, Mr Grade condemned the behaviour of Ross and Brand as "indefensible", saying they had both "strayed way beyond the margins of what was acceptable".

On the wider issue of swearing on television, he said: "I do think that the prevalence of bad language such as the f-word on TV is a little bit unrestrained. I'm not calling for a ban under any circumstances but I don't think we take enough care over the use of the f-word and similar words."

Related Articles

He added: "It used to be that you had to get very senior sign-off to use that word in any show but I'm not sure what the rules are these days. Clearly not enough consideration is given to a very large section of the audience who don't want to hear that word or such words. You have to know where you are using it and give it some extra consideration. It seems to be indiscriminate now."

His comments follow an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph which found widespread use of expletives in programmes broadcast after the 9pm watershed.

In some cases, swearing began only minutes after the watershed, when young children could still have been watching.